Email to a Potential Postdoc Supervisor: Sample and Template

A short email to a professor about postdoc positions or a joint fellowship application (such as Humboldt or MSCA), with a fictional example and a template.

When to use this

Use this email in two situations:

To ask about postdoc openings in a group whose work matches yours, when no position is advertised.
To ask a professor to host a fellowship application. Fellowships such as the Humboldt Research Fellowship, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships and the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship need a host who agrees to support you. You can read what each programme's official page says in our list of fellowships and paid programmes. Each programme's own rules are the final word.

Professors get many such emails. Yours should take less than a minute to read and make it easy to say yes or no.

What professors look for:

Your PhD topic and main result in one or two sentences
A specific link to their recent work
A clear ask: a position, or hosting a named fellowship application
Practical details: when you finish or finished your PhD, when you could start
A CV attached, with a publication list

The sample

This sample is fictional. The researcher, the papers and the project are invented. Write your own email in your own words.

Subject: Hosting a Humboldt Research Fellowship application: [short topic]

Dear Professor [Surname],

I completed my PhD in Chemistry at [University], Karachi, in [month, year]. My thesis developed low-cost catalysts for turning waste plastic into fuel, published in [journal, year] and [journal, year].

Your group's recent paper on [topic] in [journal, year] uses [method], which is the next step my work needs. I would like to apply for a Humboldt Research Fellowship to spend two years in your group testing [one-line project idea].

Would you be willing to host this application? I have attached my CV and a one-page project outline, and I would be glad to adapt the idea to fit your group's plans.

Kind regards,

Dr Bilal Ahmed [email] | [Google Scholar]

Attachments: Bilal_Ahmed_CV.pdf, Project_outline.pdf

Template you can fill in

Subject: [Postdoc enquiry / Hosting a [fellowship name] application]: [short topic]

Dear Professor [Surname],

I [completed / will complete] my PhD in [field] at [University] in [month, year]. My thesis [one-line summary and main result], published in [venues].

Your [paper / project] on [topic] [one specific link to your work]. I would like to [ask about postdoc openings in your group / apply for a [fellowship] to work with you on [idea]].

[Would you be willing to host this application? / Do you expect any postdoc openings in the coming year?] I have attached my CV [and a one-page outline].

Kind regards, [Name] [Contact details and profile link]

How to adapt this

Read the fellowship's own rules before you write, so your ask matches them (for example, who counts as an eligible host).
Keep it under 200 words. The CV and outline carry the detail.
Send it well before the fellowship's deadline. Hosts often need time to prepare their part.
Follow up once after about two weeks if there is no reply, then move on.

Common mistakes

Asking "Do you have any funding for me?" with no link to the professor's work.
Sending a ten-page proposal with the first email.
Writing to every member of a department at once.
Naming a fellowship without checking that you meet its rules.